Eastern Dragon Wars
Eastern Dragon Wars The other area where dragons were quite active during this period was in the east, in the Wedyn Hills from the House of Detmanth to the cities of Udbotsi, and all the way east to the Newmeer Hills by Vlandrahl. This period was destructive to man and dragon both, but like the Wars of Fire Sky, by the end of the Eastern Dragon Wars, there were areas where man would no longer tread. 1365-1374 First Devastation of Eastlom The people of Eastlom were mostly farmers and traders, like many of its neighbors. However, at the dawn of the fourteenth century, rare gems were being found in the Bywyd Mountains, causing a mining rush to begin which produced the town of Bastwell on Profiad Lake. Like many other stories, this sudden overpopulation of the region resulted in conflict with the prior inhabitants of the region. In this case, however, the prior inhabitants were several nests of Black Dragons. The Black Dragons of the Eastlom were never seen before this time. These eastern dragons had the ability to become any shade of grey they wished or drop into any shadow of reasonable size that they could spot. When the settlers found one of the black dragon wyrmling lairs, the dragons had all of the reason they needed to remove the invaders. The settlers were reported to not have done anything in the lair, but it did not matter; for the Eastern Black Dragons cared not for coexistence with these new neighbors an immediately started their removal. Hundreds died in a single day when the black dragons attacked. The dragons came out of lairs in the Bywyd Mountains, but also out of the Kalinor, Djadj and Sisters’ Peaks. The new town of Bastwell was flattened and scarred1 by their power, and the settlers in the East and West Profiad Plains were destroyed. The King of Profiad2, Nobuyan Ota, assembled his lords to determine whether they had enough power to seek vengeance against the dragons. Their first mission was to send scouts into the mountains to find out whether there was any hope at all at defeating the winged beasts. Over the next several years, scouts were trained, and sent into the mountains with one or two results: the entire scouting party would die, or almost all of the scouting party would die, except for one mutilated scout returning with the story of the mission’s destruction. However, the mages of Profiad were working continuously with the scouts in hopes of finding a way to remain hidden from the wyrms. The cooperation between the professions of scout and mage resulted in the Order of Aduko-Ki'3 '''who were finally able to infiltrate the dragon lairs. The dragons were making infrequent appearances during this time, but they had made sure that no one would be permitted to climb back into the Bywyd Mountains, where the black dragon lairs were found. Now, however, scouts from the Order had found investigated the dragons long enough to out how the dragons communicated, how often they slept, and what other patterns they had while they woke. With this information in hand, the King of Profiad procured the finest mages in the land, and several artificers from the neighboring Tatanic Dwarven fiefs to flush out and destroy a lair in the Bywyd Mountains. The result was complete destruction of the first dragon’s lair. The dragon and her kin were not able to escape from the lair, nor were they able to communicate to the other dragons for help. The victorious force from Profiad then returned into the valley and back to the city of Daemore. Although the dragons did not catch Nobuyan’s force, they knew who must have been responsible. The dragons poured out of the mountains and scourged the plains, burning settlement after settlement without hesitation. In addition, the dragons had detected the scent of the dwarves and therefore, ventured to the east and north to the dwarven Tatanic keeps and caves and blasted many of their outlying settlements as well. Fortunately for the dwarves, the keeps themselves were of extremely strong construction and so they could withstand the onslaught of the black dragons. Daemore and the High Palace of King Nobuyan Ota, however, were not constructed as well. Daemore was savagely attacked and the keep was burned to the ground with King Nobuyan and his family inside. When the fires of the palace finally were extinguished, one hour passed and the dragons attacked again, burning the same area where the keep and palace stood once more.4 The Profiad kingdom no longer had a king nor a royal family. The force who destroyed the dragon lair had escaped, but not a single member of the force desired retaliation from the dragons again. After the destruction of the Profiad kingdom, the dragon attacks grew more and more infrequent until again they were not seen again. The settlers did not return to the upper mines in the Bywyd Mountains, and the dragons did not seem to interfere with the resettlement of Bastwell and areas along the shores of Profiad Lake. 1379-1384 Destruction of the Dwarven Tatanic Fiefs The perspective of the experience that the Tatanic dwarves had had with the dragons was different than that of the peoples of Eastlom. The dwarves’ fiefs could withstand the onslaught of the dragons, and so they became more adventurous. For the next several years after the burning of Eastlom, the dwarves began to forge weapons of great power, as well as hone their techniques that they had acquired from the Order of Aduko-Ki. By 1379, the dwarves began their attacks on some of the outlying black dragon lairs in the Ladro Mountains. Each attack was successful and highly lucrative. The black dragons would always retaliate against the dwarves, but their fiefs, for the most part5, were able to hold up. The retaliations, however, were becoming stronger and stronger, so the dwarves decided that they should probably not continue to focus on the lairs. There were dragon lairs in the west, nearer the Shagkur Mountains. So for a couple years, the dwarves continued their dragon hunting sport, collecting great wealth and greater skill in the destruction of dragons. In 1384, however, the luck of the Tatanic dwarves changed. One of the best dwarven scouts,Irbanim Thamtûr, came upon a dragon lair which was more lavish than any she had seen before. When she relayed the information back to Amraht Hall, the dwarven lords quickly got a force together to attack, even though she made it very clear that this was not a lair of the same type of dragon. A few days later, Amraht Hall and all of the other Tatanic keeps would be destroyed; some by ice, some by fire, some crumbled, some turned into glass then broken. The devastation was so monstrous that in the ruins of certain fiefs and in random places in the plains of Shagkur, magic could no longer be used there. The main fiefs of the Tatanic dwarves were no more, with only a few of their kind able to survive and escape to the relative safety of the plains and hills of Eastlom. 1399-1404 Second Devastation of Eastlom After the destruction of the Tatanic Dwarves, the people of Eastlom were divided into two groups concerning their perspective of dragons. There was one group who showed only reverence for dragonkind; and another who sought only vengeance. The former group expressed their reverence through both religious devotion and a deep desire to study the dragons. The ''Udbani Kotai ''was a sect formed in 1376, which best manifested this perspective. Since that time, there are few other orders who can boast any greater knowledge of dragons than the Udbani Kotai. The latter group was not ready to return to war with the dragons, but they felt that it was necessary to prepare for a time when they would be able to bring war to them. There were many people that planned for this day, but none more than the people in Eastlom who had joined the ''Dragonbane order. The members of the Dragonbane in Eastlom became even more knowledgeable of their great foe when refugees from the Tatanic Fiefs began to arrive in 1384. The leader of the Eastlom Dragonbane was an Eastlom noble, Adupani Imparkei, who had lost his father and grandfather in the destruction of the High Palace of Profiad. Since that moment, Adupani had spent his life focusing on the destruction of dragonkind, honing his artificer6, warrior and magical skills. He also had learned much from members of the Aduko-Ki who he had in his service. With this knowledge, he built a force that he felt was capable to defeat the dragons surrounding the Profiad Plains, and by 1399, he was ready to use them. For the next four years, Adupani launched attacks against the dragon lairs in the Bywyd, Kalinor and Sisters’ Peaks. In each case, the Dragonbane were quick, careful and lethal; successfully cleaning out the dragon lairs. There were immediate reprisals in each case from the dragons, but the towns and fiefs of Eastlom were now more prepared for dragon attack. Perhaps now the devastation caused by these black dragons would not be as great as before. By the end of the four years, almost all of the known dragon lairs in those high peaks had been eliminated by the Dragonbanes. This systematic elimination of the dragons, however, was not unnoticed by dragonkind. By 1404, the dragon who had wiped out each of the Tatanic fiefs had decided that it was time to make sure that Eastlom did not continue its rampage against dragonkind. One clear day in summer, a great elder white dragon, known as Akadian, descended from the northern mountains and flew across every town and fief in Eastlom, finally descending into the Moormar Bog between eastern and western Profiad Plains. It was a clear message to the Udbani Kotai that the Dragonbanes had gone too far, but Adupani could not have such a horrible beast living amidst the plains. The Udbani Kotai made many offerings and sacrifices along the edge of the Moormar Bog, each accepted secretly by Akadian. This, of course, enraged Adupani and so he began to make plans for a great attack of the Dragonbane upon the bog. All of the finest Dragonbane of Eastlom, including Adupani himself, was part of the great attack, but none but one would return from the bog alive. Icharda Pontu was the only living survivor as he had been a great disciple of the Aduko-Ki prior to his commitment to the Dragonbane. Icharda spoke of quick and complete devastation of any of the Dragonbane who dared to get close to Akadian. In addition, Akadian took some of the corpses of the slain and combined them into a horrible beast which now patrolled the bog for any other Dragonbanes who dared to enter it. As Icharda finished the recollection of the horrible events in the keep of Moormar, Akadian swept over the city and leveled it. For the rest of the year, Akadian made attacks across the plains and in the towns, destroying one building here, one building there. He wanted to make sure that all of Eastlom knew that no one was safe. There was one last attack from Akadian on the last day of 1404, but afterwards, Akadian rose and left the bog, and wreaked vengeance no more.7 1407-1410 Devastation of the Smothe At the beginning of the fifteenth century, the Eastlom was growing again. It had been forty years since the last war of the Ûr Lords, and people felt protected under the shadow of the Keep of House Detmanth, high in the Barrier Mountains. The town of Linapen (now Bog's Head), surrounded by two lakes, was becoming larger and was a stopping point for any trade through Crocia or Surrin. The plains were fertile, and the mining in the Wedyn Hills was lucrative. Word had arrived in the Smothe about the dragon wars in the southeast. When miners did come across something which could be a dragon lair, they immediately avoided it; although in some cases, they left offerings to appease the lair’s inhabitants. There were no Dragonbanes in the Smothe, and reported sightings of dragons were treated mostly as legend. The peace of the Smothe would change due to a bet. Lord Ashgabain was a gregarious and happy noble of Linapen who was well-respected by all of the citizens. He was also a tremendous gambler. Ashgabain had gone to Niemandale to discuss trade issues, but he found his way into the noble court of the city and into their exclusive gambling houses. For a while Ashgabain made great winnings, but all good things must come to an end, and Ashgabain started to lose, and lose big. By the end of the evening, Ashgabain had not only lost his personal funds, but he had lost more money than the family manor house was worth. Ashgabain had lost this money to Lord Kalgar of Lexter, who was known for his lechery and poor demeanor. Kalgar demanded full payment of Ashgabain’s debts, and if not that, then the ownership of his daughter, and if not that, then all of the lands which Ashgabain’s family owned, and if not that, then all of the mines that Ashgabain owned. Ashgabain pleaded with the Niemandale nobles and with Kalgar that perhaps they could reach an agreement where Ashgabain would give up all of the wares in the Linapen trade caravan and pay off his debts overtime from the profits from his mines. Kalgar was not moved, but the nobles of Niemandale thought it was fair, and persuaded the begrudging Kalgar to accept the offer. Kalgar took his payment, but was still furious at Ashgabain for getting out of his steep debts. Kalgar knew that much of Ashgabain’s profits came from mines in the Wedyn Hills, and he had also heard that in those same hills, some dragon lairs had been discovered. Kalgar then turned to the Dragonbane sect to help him avenge the unpaid debts of Ashgabain by attacking a dragon cave immediately near Ashgabain’s mines. The Dragonbane were not aware of the enmity between Kalgar and Ashgabain, and Kalgar made it seem that he was actually trying to help Ashgabain by removing the dragons. So, the Dragonbane planned their assault, and cleaned out two of the dragon lairs quite close to Ashgabain’s mines. The dragons retaliated. The dragons were growing tired of these intrusions into their space, and they grouped together and called upon the elder dragons for assistance as well. When Akadian left Moormar Bog to help the northern dragons, all of Eastlom shuddered when reports of his travel spread across the plains. The dragons met at the destroyed caves and discussed what they were going to do. The miners had long appeased dragonkind, but now there was someone who was betraying the relationship. Firstly, the mines of Ashgabain which were closest to the lairs were closed forever. Then the dragons covered the Smothe and began to systematically destroy every tenth dwelling they came upon. Finally, Akadian and the great metallic red dragon, Kadik-Bataas, swooped above Linapen and destroyed every manor house, but not the keep of the city. Then Akadian and Kadik-Bataas poisoned and destroyed the lakes surrounding the city, turning them into festering, disease-ridden bogs for all eternity.8 When this was completed, the dragons returned to their lairs and awaited the response from those who remained in the . The offerings and sacrifices returned to the dragon lairs. The Smothe would not be another battleground as the Eastlom had been. Over the next month, Ashgabain was imprisoned because no one had believed his story that he had not attacked the dragon lairs. Too many people had died and he had to have been the culprit. However, Ashgabain still had a few old friends in the nobility, and they began to divine what had happened. When they realized that the debts which Ashgabain had owed were the cause for the devastation, they could not defend Ashgabain any longer. They also, however, had to seek vengeance against Kalgar. News had escaped of the results of the divination, and all of the people of now scorned and hated everything about neighboring Crocia. No trade caravan from Lexter or Niemandale was allowed entry into Bog’s Head (the new name for the town between the Lina and Pen bogs). Small raids against Crocian manors and farms were commonplace, and the hatred that would divide the Smothe from Surrin and Crocia forever had begun. As for Lord Kalgar, one night later that year, he would never awake to see his daughters killed and his manor house burned to the ground. 1435-1451 The Hunting of the Red Wyrm The respect that Eastlom and the Smothe had for dragonkind was solidified over time. It was much easier and safer for offerings to be made to the wyrms than to suffer their retaliation. However, there were still elements in both lands who sought vengeance. The secret Dragonbane sects of both regions grew in numbers, but dared not directly attack any of the dragons, as the population of either region would be gravely endangered. However, the dragons still would have to pay for the devastation which they had caused. The chief Dragonbane who had been in the attack near the Ashgabain mines was Izmith Harmaat. He determined that if vengeance was to be had against the dragons, they needed to do it carefully, and never from a location to which they wished to return. Izmith was also determined not to seek vengeance against lesser dragons. The beautiful lakes of Lina and Pen were turned into filthy bogs, not by normal dragons, but by the elder beasts. Akadian was too close to Eastlom so Izmith set his target on Kadik-Bataas. Izmith took his best warriors and mages and set out across the Wedyn Hills and to the unknown lands east of the Desolation of Shagkur. For years, Izmith hunted Kadik-Bataas, yet the elder dragon was very difficult to find. The diviners with Izmith had determined that Kadik-Bataas traveled typically between lairs in the Abrinthall Wood and the Shagkur Peaks, but the exact location remained hidden to him for many months. Finally, one of the Dragonbane who had a close connection with the plant folk was able to acquire enough information to determine the location of Kadik-Bataas’ lair in the Abrinthall Wood. In a deep grove, surrounded with redwoods, brambles, boulders and a dense canapé, Kadik-Bataas had made his home. The lair was impenetrable by any physical passage, either by foot, or from above, so Izmith began to dig. For the next two years, Izmith worked on his plan to ensnare the elder dragon from below although there were many obstacles to overcome. The wyrm had left wards and glyphs everywhere which told him of intrusions into his lair, so his mages needed to be extremely attentive to anything which might notify the dragon. Izmith was finally fully prepared for the ambush and now all they had to do was wait. The battle between Kadik-Bataas and the Dragonbanes was great and yet over in only a few minutes. All of the Dragonbanes would be dead9 at its conclusion, but the damage, poisons and curses which were put on Kadik-Bataas were enough to cause his death a week later. When Kadik-Bataas died, the dragons of the southeastern mountain rim all took flight and cried a terrible moan which was heard for hundreds of miles. After the death of Kadik-Bataas, all of the dragons who had lived close to civilization retreated. The offerings near the mines were never collected. No longer was there any indication that dragons lived nearby. The only exception to this was Akadian who remained watchful in the Moormar Bog, and still collected his offerings.10 Links Chronology of Eirethune Previous, Death from the Seas Next, Second Age: Years of Resurgence Notes 1 In Bastwell, there is the remains of an ancient temple to Shang-Di which was turned to dust, blown about and then turned to glass during the first attack of the Black Dragons. What is currently left of the temple is a strange, otherworldly structure which burns any who touch it. 2 Profiad was the name of the kingdom for all of the settlements in Eastlom that were within a 75 mile radius of Daemore . 3 It is said that a high member of the Order of Aduko-Ki knows ways of hiding themselves from any sort of divination, whether from man or beast or god. 4 This scorched black area is now the floor for the grand bazaar of Daemore. 5 After the third raid in the Profiad Kingdom, the Keep of Dorgan Mei exploded during an attack of the black dragons. When the survivors were exposed once the keeps were blown open, the dragons showed no mercy. 6 The Sword of Adupani was his greatest piece of workmanship. It was said to be made from the bones of an elder black dragon, desecrated with demon blood, and forged out of pure Mithril. The sword was lost when Akadian returned somewhere in the Moormar Bogs. 7 The Udbani Kotai grew in importance in Eastlom society after Akadian moved into the Moormar Bog. Correspondingly, society scorned any Dragonbane who still talked about vengeance. In Angleside, the Dragonbanes can still be found openly, but in Udbotsi, the Dragonbanes are more of a secret cult. 8 Some say that there is at least one dragon lair in each of the bogs surrounding Bog’s Head. Some are certain that there are also creatures present in the bogs that are similar to the beast of Moormar Bog yet made from the dead nobility of Linapen. No one travels into the bogs except to acquire peat from the edges. 9 The location of the den of Kadik-Bataas is unknown, yet it remains an ultimate quest for some Dragonbane to investigate. None have found the lair, but all know that the lair will be filled with riches beyond their wildest dreams and more importantly, the bones and ashes of Izmith and his comrades. 10 After the Eastern Dragon Wars were finally over, there was a period of contemplative recovery which included a great number of songs remembering those lost during the wars. In Bredenkham, there was a great bard, Vaz al Ragaad, who was not only a great composer of the era, but was quite adept with Enchantment ''magic and also a great devotee to Apasta. It was said that he had a ''Shawm that was capable of keeping wyrm creatures at bay, and that he recorded instructions on how to build and enchant his Shawm. At least one tome of the set on creating instruments by Vaz al Ragaad is in the Temple to Mata in Bredenkham. Category:Eirethune Category:RPG Category:History Category:Chronology Category:Second Age Category:Eastern Dragon Wars